BY MATT BERG & CROOKED MEDIA |
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Elon’s work needs to wrap up, and he needs to exit stage left.”
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A backlash against the GOP in today’s elections could be bad news for the party’s increasingly unpopular new figurehead: Elon Musk.
- Call it Election Day for Elon Musk, the guy nobody voted for. Wisconsin and Florida hold a trio of elections today with significance well beyond state borders. They could signal to rank-and-file Republicans in Congress that the unelected billionaire leading their charge to smash government agencies, fire workers, sow chaos and roll back popular services… is dragging them all down.
- In Wisconsin, residents vote in a race that will determine whether the state’s Supreme Court leans liberal or conservative. In Florida, voters will decide who should fill House seats left vacant by Mike Waltz (now the national security adviser) and Matt Gaetz (who resigned before dropping his bid to be attorney general, lol).
- Why are these votes potentially ominous for Musk? They’re the first time since the 2024 general election that voters get to weigh in on President Donald Trump’s agenda — and Musk’s work with DOGE. The tech bro has been handing out million-dollar checks to boost Brad Schimel, the conservative favorite for the Wisconsin race, effectively trying to buy another election. (Musk has dumped $82 million into this race.) The Democratic candidates in Florida are doing much better than anyone expected, finding receptive audiences when they bash Musk. His super PAC has also bankrolled both Republicans.
- Bottom line: If Musk fails to sway voters, Trumpworld will likely view him as less influential — and potentially harmful to the brand. A bad result for Musk would look like the Democrat winning in Wisconsin, and losing by less-than-usual in those deep red Florida districts.
- “Americans are sick of billionaires buying elections,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who recently introduced a bill to ban super PACs, told What A Day. “What Musk is doing in Wisconsin reminds us why this is so urgent.”
There are clear signs that Trump and Republican lawmakers are sick and tired of the gazillionaire’s mayhem.
- Trump hinted yesterday that the “first buddy’s” White House days may be numbered. “I think he’s amazing but I also think he's got a big company to run and so at some point he's going to be going back,” Trump said.
- Some Republicans are quietly praying that today’s elections smash Musk’s political stature. An “April 1st massacre” would be “a beautiful thing,” one GOP lawmaker told Politico, explaining that fellow Republicans would finally realize how damaging Musk is to the party because the public doesn’t like him anymore. “Elon’s work needs to wrap up, and he needs to exit stage left,” another GOP lawmaker told the outlet.
Who would’ve thought that Elon Musk would unite Republicans and Democrats — in their mutual hatred of the guy!
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The Trump administration admitted that it mistakenly sent an immigrant living in Maryland to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador, in a new court document.
The man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was “removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” an official wrote in a new court document. Administration lawyers further insisted that nothing could be done to retrieve him.
This story is as crazy as it is cruel. But it got even dumber from there — when Vice President JD Vance took to social media to defend the administration’s actions, while also getting his facts wrong, and beefing with Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau.
“Any comment on this,” asked Favreau on X, addressing Vance and other top MAGAworld elite. “You just admitted to accidentally sending an innocent father from Maryland to a torture dungeon in El Salvador. And you refuse to do anything about it.”
Vance fired back: “My comment is that according to the court document you apparently didn’t read he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here. My further comment is that it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize.”
But Vance didn’t have his facts straight — as Politico legal reporter Kyle Cheney pointed out. The document doesn’t say the individual had been convicted of anything. “The vice president, an attorney, appears not to know what the word ‘convicted’ means,” Politico legal reporter Josh Gerstein wrote .
Remember: Vance was throwing down to defend what his administration’s own Department of Justice had already admitted was “an error” and “an oversight.” So, what, exactly, is Vance even arguing?
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National security adviser Waltz and other Trump officials have used Gmail to conduct government business, the Washington Post reports. That’s way less secure than Signal, the messaging app he mistakenly made with cabinet members and a journalist. Reminder that Trump’s AG Pam Bondi said last week we shouldn’t focus on this because of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Top leaders at the Department of Health and Human Services were put on administrative leave or offered reassignments today. Scores of other employees were laid off, with some learning they’d lost their jobs when their badges wouldn’t scan into the office. Some workers were told to contact an employee with discrimination complaints. The problem? That worker died last year, underscoring the Trumpian chaos.
On that note, more than 1,900 scientists signed a letter warning about the Trump administration’s attacks on the science community: “The funding cuts are forcing institutions to pause research (including studies of new disease treatments), dismiss faculty, and stop enrolling graduate students — the pipeline for the next generation’s scientists,” they wrote.
Donald Trump said that he has “settled” on the details of his major tariff plan that’s slated to go into effect on Wednesday, but that he won’t share them in advance. The “Liberation Day” tariffs will go into effect “immediately” after Trump announces them tomorrow at 4pm ET, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Guess I just won’t look at my retirement account for the next four years!
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has been speaking on the Senate floor since 7 p.m. last night in protest of the Trump administration’s unjust and unconstitutional actions. “I’ve been hearing from people … calling upon folks in Congress to do more, to do things that recognize the urgency, the crisis of the moment,” Booker said in a video. “We all have the responsibility, I believe, to do something different.” More of this energy, please! (Although, ideally, y’know, actually get stuff done.)
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